द्वितीय राजतरङ्गिणी (जोनराज - कल्हणोत्तर मध्यकालीन कश्मीर का प्रामाणिक इतिहास)

KINGS OF KASHMÍRA. 133
dancing. The king was a part of Mahādeva, and his
courtiers who attended on him were like Cupid, who
had multiplied into many persons inorder to overcome
him. The spectators and the singers knew literature,
rhetoric, and philosophy, and appreciated merit. Young
women, proficient in music, possessed of sweet voice,
and with a genuine ardour for song, graced the place.
The men were learned and dignified; and fond of
enjoyment ; and they displayed their taste and their in-
telligence on the stage. The renowned Tārā and the
actors sang various songs to the nārācha tune, and to
every kind of music. And the songstress Utsavā who
was even like Cupid's arrow, charming to the eye and
proficient in dance, both swift and slow, entranced
every body. The actresses, who displayed the forty nine
different emotions seemed even like the ascending and
descending notes of music personified. As they danced
and sang, the eye and the ear of the audience seemed to
contend for the kneenest enjoyment. The scene was in-
deed beautiful, the songs of the actresses were like the
voice of the kokila, the stage was like a garden where the
lamps on it looked like rows of the champaka flower, and
around them were men intoxicated with wine, like bees
around flowers. Rows of lamps surrounded the king, as if
the gods pleased with his government had come to witness
the dance, and had thrown a garland of golden lotuses
round him. In some places, the rows of lamps were
reflected on the water, as if Varuṇa had out of favour
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